


Drops Of Rain

by narnia



Category: The Following
Genre: F/M, I don't know what I've done, M/M, my first work in this fandom on here, this isn't that violent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:39:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narnia/pseuds/narnia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's so much blood. His blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drops Of Rain

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbeta'd, as usual.

There's blood.   
God, there's so much blood.

\---------

(Joe's standing there with a blade in his hand. 

There's a girl on the table, her ankles and wrists strapped to it. 

The sight shouldn't excitement him so much, but he walks in the room slowly. He's hesitant and Joe clearly senses that, so he speaks up. He shows the young man how to do it, how to make the perfect cut without killing them. He explains it in very specific detail while performing. It sets him off the young man soon realizes, it makes him get a spark in his eyes that isn't there during classes. 

In that moment, Roderick realizes how much of an idol Joe Carroll really is.

\---------

The first time getting Claire ... It's a complete failure. A good man offers to die because of it and Roderick feels like a failure for the first time in years. 

The second time getting Claire .... It's a complete failure. 

The third time Joe to go with Vince and Brock to the hotel Claire is staying at. Roderick tells him he has a job to go to that day. Two hours after, he finds himself in a hotel room with a dead cleaning woman on the floor and a master key in his hand. 

It's the first time he doubts Joe Carroll.

\---------

Roderick's in the bathroom trying to stop a bloody nose. He's stupid to speak against Joe's will. He's stupid for letting Joe get this far - this far away from the original plan. He's got Claire here and he's trying to convince her to love him again. It's not going to work, he knows that. Joe doesn't and isn't that great?

Once his nose isn't bleeding anymore, he throws the messy wad of tissues in the waste basket. He looks in the mirror and he looks at the bruises on his jaw - curtesy to Claire's husband, of course. 

For a moment Roderick doubts Joe a second time. 

\--------

There's shouting and running and more shouting. It's coming from the front and the back, from inside the house, from inside the rooms where some people have barracaded themselves.

It's chaos. And in any other situation, he would have been basking in it, soaking the screams and the panic up. But it's not that situation and he certainly isn't basking in the screams he's hearing. 

Joe's followers are screaming for their leader. For their idol, their god. But he isn't coming. Roderick doesn't go to them either, instead he goes to the back, to the woods where he thinks Joe will be.

He's right and he isn't alone. 

\--------

"Right there, Roderick," he hears Joe breathe, hears his breath shutter from between those lips. He can hear the desperation, he can feel the longing. "You're doing perfectly, my friend." And yet he doesn't move after the first drip of blood pooling around the wound. 

He can't. He won't. He's frozen. And all he hears is Joe breathing deeply in his ear next to him. All he feels is the brush of the man's shirt sleeve as his arm finds its way around him. Joe's hand is taking his own and brings it down and all he can do is watch more blood pool beneath his hand, around the knife.

Roderick breathes through his nose and he finds he actually doesn't feel the need to vomit. Instead, he feels more alive than ever before. 

Joe finds himself a friend that night.

\--------

He's watching them. They're seated at a small round table in the middle of the room. Claire looks utterly delicious tonight, all dolled up for a man who she loathes. Joe's seated across from her and even though he has his back to the door, Roderick can bascally feel the smile on his face. 

Claire looks like she wants to claw his eyes out.

Roderick doesn't blame her. The man can be too undecided, too unpredictable. Other times he can be too slow and predictable. He knows that Claire's the only person who knows Joe better than himself. That irritates him, it always has ever since he heard about Claire. 

And now all Joe cares about is Claire and her love. There's also that little brat of his, Joey, that he'll drop anything for. It's sickening and he feels himself begin to tremble just thinking about all the memories those three had together. He has to bite down hard on his tongue to stop himself from making any noise to indicate his presence. 

He shouldn't be watching them like this, in this private moment between the two. He can't seem to stop though, so he settling himself against the wall and continues. 

Claire still looks delicious in that dress.

\----------

"Joe!"

All three men look in his direction. 

Joe, Ryan Hardy, and Mike Weston. 

Both Hardy and Weston have their weapons trained on Joe, trained on his everything, trained on the man who made him everything he is today. 

There's arguing and a few choice words being thrown back and forth. And then Hardy looks like he's going to shoot and Roderick doesn't think twice about it. 

\---------

"How are you today, my friend?" he's asked and he finds he can't answer straight away. His nose still aches from earlier and he can feel the fingers still holding his jaw roughly. 

"I'm fine," he answers after a beat of silence. He is fine, he is not lying. That's what he convinced himself to say before Joe found his way into his room. "Really, there's nothing to worry about."

Joe moves closer, shutting the door quietly behind him with a 'click'. And suddenly, before he knows it, Joe's standing in front of him, and yet ... Roderick doesn't look at his everything. Instead he looks to the right where a picture of a little duckling is hanging on the wall. He clenches his jaw when he feels actual fingers lift his head, making him look at Joe, in his eyes where there are no boundaries between them. 

"I do apologize," Joe begins, his accent softly rolling from his lips. It almost causes Roderick to shiver, but he refrains and remains stubborn. "For earlier. I shouldn't have done that. You are so good to me, Roderick, I'm afraid I take that for granted at times-"

Roderick shakes his head as much as Joe's letting him with his fingers grasping his jaw. He can't let Joe apologize, no matter how much in the wrong he had been. No matter how he's planning on pushing Joe out of the house. No matter how much he's been planning to let Joe have his precious Claire and dear Joey and get the fuck out of here.

"I should be the one apologizing," he hears himself muttering, "I stepped out of line, I-"

"Shh, it's all in the past now, my friend, don't fret over it anymore."

\--------

There's blood.

God, there's so much blood.

"Roderick!"

He can't feel anything. It's all gone cold. He knows something has happened, knowing that something has happened to him of all people. And when he opens his eyes and looks at the three, he sees Weston's gun pointed at him. Hardy looks surprised, shocked even, and Joe looks as if his world is falling apart. Weston has to be the one who pulled the trigger, who fucking shot him in the chest. 

God, it's so cold. 

"Shh, my friend, don't talk," Joe is saying and that's when he realizes he is, in fact, talking out loud. Joe looks like he's not going to comfort him, like he's not going to try to tell him that he's going to get all fixed up and will end up being okay. That's a lie, obviously. 

Roderick knows Joe and the man will not be speaking those words to him. 

Instead that man says, "you've done well, Roderick. Thank you, my friend." And then Joe's lips are on his forehead and he doesn't have the time to react. Suddenly he does feel a sharp pain, a pain in his chest and he feels his own blood leave his mouth and trail down his chin only to drip on Joe's shirt. 

He doesn't even have the time to tell Joe how much he loved him. 

\--------

Roderick's the one who leaves that day.

And he never comes back.


End file.
